According to a study by the strategy consultancy PwC Strategy, German industry’s preparations for a hydrogen economy are gaining ground
In 2030, 80 percent of hydrogen demand is likely to be accounted for by the steel industry, the semiconductor industry, oil refineries and the chemical, ceramics and glass industries. “The largest customer will probably be the Rhine-Ruhr area with its steel and chemical industry,” says the study. According to the consultants, the major hydrogen hubs will also include Saarland, the Bavarian Upper Palatinate, the Frankfurt-Stuttgart-Würzburg triangle, the Bremen-Hamburg axis and the Berlin-Leipzig-Magdeburg region. Hydrogen is a niche topic in mechanical engineering and the food industry, but steelworks “have long been experimenting with pilot plants to produce fossil-free steel based on green hydrogen. Semiconductor factories are planning their own electrolysis capacities”.
While large parts of the country are to be supplied with a 5,100-kilometer-long pipeline network, there is a double supply gap in the south: “According to the current status, for example, for the Freiburg-Munich axis by 2030, neither a sufficient connection to the European hydrogen network is guaranteed nor the region will have sufficient PV or wind power plants to produce green hydrogen on site. There is also a lack of sufficient connection to power lines to be able to supply itself with green electricity from the north,” the strategy consultants wrote.
Hydrogen projects with a capacity of five gigawatts are in operation, under construction or in planning in Germany. Significant hydrogen imports to Germany can only be expected from 2035, said co-author Dirk Niemeier.
